Funding Competition: APC – Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator 3 (UK)

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), the automotive industry and academia, to invest up to £15 million in the Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator 3 (ARMD3) competition.

These will be to accelerate the industrialisation of technologies, digital optimisation and manufacturing processes, to support the UK’s transition to a zero emissions automotive industry.

The aim of this competition is to develop a product or process demonstrator, to show increased capability, and commercial exploitation opportunity, as a result of the project. The project will utilise future zero emission powertrain technology as a key element in the UKs transition to net zero.

Specific Themes

If you are using multiple technologies, rank them in order of their significance and impact to your project.

The one ranked first must be the lead technology:

• electric machines and power electronics
• energy storage and energy management
• lightweight vehicles and powertrain structures
• fuel cell and associated balance of plant
• thermal propulsion systems and alternative fuels
• digitalisation for development of low carbon vehicle innovation, data analytics, redesign, test and validation and verification

Project Size

• Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £500,000 and £1.5 million. Your project must be a minimum of 50% match funded.

Projects they will not fund

• They are not funding projects that are:
  • focussed only on the development of clean fuels
  • not aligned with the UK’s net zero research innovations framework
  • requesting more than 50% grant for total project costs
  • predominantly off vehicle
  • focussed on process or manufacturing
  • focussed on recycling
  • developing either e-Scooters or e-Bikes
• They cannot fund projects that are:
  • dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

Who can apply?

• Your project
  • Your project must:
    • have a minimum of 50% match funded
    • last between 9 and 12 months
    • carry out all of its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
    • start by 1 October 2024
    • end by 30 September 2025
  • Projects must always start on the first of the month and this must be stated within your application. Your project start date will be reflected in your grant offer letter if you are successful.
  • Under current restrictions, this competition will not fund any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any Russian or Belarusian entity as lead, partner or subcontractor. This includes any goods or services originating from a Russian or Belarusian source.
• Lead organisation
  • To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:
    • be a UK registered business of any size
    • have an active registered business base in the UK
    • be a grant recipient
    • collaborate with other UK registered organisations where applicable
• Project team
  • To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
    • business of any size
    • academic institution
    • charity
    • not for profit
    • public sector organisation
    • research and technology organisation (RTO)
  • Non-UK registered businesses and research organisations are only eligible to apply for funding if:
    • they set up an active UK-registered business where the funded project work will be carried out by the start of the project
    • provide evidence of an intention to expand their R&D activity in the UK during and after the project
  • A company registration number starting with a FC or BR is not considered as a UK registered business and not eligible to apply for funding.
  • Each partner organisation must be invited into the Innovation Funding Service (IFS) by the lead to collaborate on a project. Once partners have accepted the invitation, they will be asked to login or to create an account in the IFS. They are responsible for entering their own project costs in the application.
• Non-funded partners
  • Your project can include partners that do not receive any of this competition’s funding, for example non-UK businesses. Their costs will count towards the total project costs.
• Subcontractors
  • Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.
  • Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.
  • You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you could not use suppliers from the UK.
  • You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. They will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.
  • All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total project costs.
• Number of applications
  • There are no limits on the number of applications an organisation can be involved in.

For more information, visit Innovate UK.